


Scrabble

by errantknightess



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Scrabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errantknightess/pseuds/errantknightess
Summary: Allen cheats even at Scrabble, but Lavi has his own trick up his sleeve.





	Scrabble

Two hours in, the hard floor was starting to disagree with his knees. Lavi shifted and fidgeted in his spot, his eye never leaving the board in front of him. With Allen, he could never be too careful.

“What the heck is a _dibdye_?”

“Oh, you don’t know?” The polite surprise in Allen’s voice was so studied that it made Lavi cringe.

“First time I’ve heard of it,” he deadpanned, seizing him with an expectant look over his rack of letters.

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.” Allen leaned back on his elbows with a smug smirk.

“I am.” Lavi stretched out his stiff legs and poked him lightly with his foot. “Now quench my thirst for knowledge. What is it?”

“Uhh, it’s this…” Allen flailed his arms, eyes darting around his barren bedroom. “You know. It looks like… Well, it’s used for… waffles?”

“Come on, Allen,” Lavi sighed, one by one taking the tiles off the board. “It’s fun watching you squirm, but play fair for _once_. I won’t let you cheat me at Scrabble, too.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do with these letters?” Allen grumbled, sitting up again and leaning his head on his balled fist. “I can’t make out any real words.”

“You can swap them.” Lavi pushed the sack of spare tiles towards him. “Just no peeking this time!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Allen announced with a cheeky smile, groping for new letters before dumping his old set into the sack. Lavi kept his eye fixed on him just in case, to make sure he won't try anything new. He watched closely as Allen put his tiles on the rack, shifting them and rearranging with a small frown, as he worried his lower lip between his teeth and pushed his bangs back only to have them fall over his eyes again.

“It’s your turn, Lavi. What are you looking at?”

“Oh. Right.” Lavi turned his eye back to his letter rack. So many vowels… And the board was almost full. Even with good letters, it would be hard to squeeze them in—

“Hey!” His hand shot out almost on instinct, grabbing Allen’s wrist over the board. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Nothing.” With an innocent smile, Allen dropped the tiles in his hand back on the board. They bounced off, knocking a few others out of place as they scattered. Lavi groaned.

“Seriously, why do I even play with you?”

“Because you’re a nerd,” Allen supplied quickly. “And I’m the only one who can stand your fancy words.”

“True.” Lavi loosened his grip, fingers burning as they slipped over Allen’s hand. “What would I do without you?”

“Probably play patience all the time.” Allen straightened out the messed up tiles, and Lavi couldn’t miss how half of them suddenly found themselves in oddly convenient places.

“I bet you’d cheat even playing on your own,” he teased, reaching to put the letters back where they belonged.

“Of course! At least then there’s no one to call me out on it.” Allen’s hands danced over the board, sweeping the tiles away from him, pushing them around and ripping out the neat crossword they had set out. Lavi followed his every move, chasing his touch tile after tile, fingertips skimming over the smooth surface.

“You’re impossible. Come on, that’s enough. I’m making my move now.”

“Good luck.” With a wide grin, Allen switched a couple more letters. The gibberish on the board had now lost even a passing resemblance to any language known to Lavi – but that only made things easier for him.

“And who’s cheating now?” Allen crossed his arms, watching him place his letters among all this chaos. I, L, U, V, U. He tilted his head, as if he could make more sense of them from another angle. “That’s not even a word!”

“You’re right. It’s three words.” Biting down at his treacherous smile, Lavi shuffled the first and last tile apart from the rest. “Better now?”

Allen stared at the letters, his face slowly turning the most beautiful shade of crimson that Lavi has ever seen.

“You win,” he said at last, looking up at him with misty eyes. The tiles shifted again as he leaned forward over the board, his lips warm and gentle against Lavi’s.


End file.
